id Software’s Return to Castle Wolfenstein is still one of my favorite games on the original Xbox.  I must’ve played a bazillion hours on Xbox LIVE with it.  That should tell you something about my anticipation for their latest in the series, Wolfenstein, on the Xbox 360.  Activision sent me a batch of screenshots from their QuakeCon showing.  I’m hoping I’ll be able to head out to QuakeCon this weekend since it’s in Dallas (my hood) and get a closer look.

Screenshots: Wolfenstein QuakeCon 08

Everyone knows the story of Sampson, his strength and his hair right?  If you think that epic tale of hair was interesting, then Sega’s Bayonetta is about to tell the most wicked story of hair to date.  Check out the video and message from its creator.  It may look as if she’s wearing a nice, skin tight leather outfit but in actuality, she has “magical hair” that covers her entire body to form her outfit.  So during the game as she attacks, some of her body will be exposed depending on the type of attack.  I told you this would be a hair raising experience.

“When she uses an attack, you can see her skin is revealed because she needs her hair to make the magic happen; you can see a lot of skin there.” - PlatinumGames’ Hideki Kamiya, EGM.

I was reading the latest EGM magazine and this game stood out.  Bayonetta is the next 3D action game from famed Devil May Cry creator, Hideki Kamiya.  It’s slated for a 2009 release but what’s the point in waiting to get stoked about this is what I say.  The weapons look crazy and the action even crazier.  She has four guns (Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme) that she uses; 2 in her hands and 2 attached to her feet.  You can tell the Devil May Cry influence with the game which, in my opinion, is a great thing because the first DMC rocked.  Yes, there are more weapons so don’t worry.

Flip through the latest EGM magazine for the complete lowdown.  And check out I just had to say that you should all put this on your radar.  Witch Time, katanas, chain & sickles, magical hair…2009 is shaping up very nicely.  Here are some images of Bayonetta to feast on.  This may very well be what Bullet Witch should have been and had the potential to be.  Bring it!

There’s a demo for EA Sports’ Madden NFL 09 out on Xbox LIVE Marketplace.  Get ready to quarterback the latest entry in the football video game dynasty.  Think Brett Favre is gearing up to download it?  I bet if he is, the Green Bay Packers are looking to block it.

There’s also a demo for Facebreaker as well giving you an early look at the exaggerated boxer from EA.  So you can beat people up in the ring and turn around to beat them up on the football field with just a click of the A button to download these two demos.

My friends over at Platform Nation highlighted a rumor going around yesterday about The Behemoth’s Castle Crashers being priced at 1800 Microsoft Points and subsequently tipping the scales of the Xbox Live Arcade.  All of you Penny Arcade Adventure buyers take a look at what your fandom has done.  If you buy something at 1600 Microsoft Points, then why not 1800 Microsoft Points?

Thank goodness though that another of my amazing wallpaper edits forced The Behemoth to respond and let everyone know that rumors are often just rumors.  A price point has not been set for Castle Crashers.  In fact, as you can see below, the characters in the game are planning to murder the number.  Hopefully they will have succeeded before the August 27th release date.

Money is power and oil is money.  And it looks like business is about to be good for a mercenary.  I just got my first contract and the target is Pandemic Studios.  I’m headed to Pandemic Studios next week for a look inside the lives of Chris, Mattias and Jen.  Mercenaries 2: World In Flames here I come!  It should be a lot of fun getting an inside look at the game.

Hopefully I’ll be able to squeeze some time in to post an article or two about the event.  I’ll also have some Unscripted 360 presence at a Dead Space event next week along with a special event in Vancouver, Canada.  Yes, that’s also next week so U360 will be all over the place.  Not me personally as I can’t be in 3 places at once but I have some chess pieces in place to cover things for me.  One of those people is Dangerdoll herself.  (yay for gamer girls)

Let me know if there’s something specific about Mercenaries 2: World In Flames that you want me to dig up.

Welcome to GTFO Part 1.  GTFO means Get The F Out in case you were wondering.  It’s a Truth Serum series on celebrities, publishers and other people giving a bad name to gamers.  You don’t want to miss this series as it plays out.

I’m calling for a movement and I don’t care if it’s a movement that will likely never happen.  I think it’s about time that game companies reinvent themselves and stop all the celebrity pimping!  At least stop the celebrity pimping of those who don’t play games.  I don’t need to remind everyone of the Jamie Kennedy experiment that Activision tried at last years E3 do I?  Well, that’s what happens when you waste money on a “face” or “name” who couldn’t care less about your game or gaming period.  Paris Hilton receiving a free Xbox 360 anyone?

I understand the business side of it to have a Paris Hilton or some other celebrity pose for the camera.  It sells your product but it’s just so “wrong” and nearly makes me gag.

What could be so wrong about wasting dollars on gamers who actually know and care about what you’re selling?  It would be a hell of lot cheaper.  They wouldn’t have to pay a PR person to tag along at every interview to make sure details about the game were accurate.  Why aren’t gamers the likely choice to sell games?  One could reason that if it’s celebrity status that these companies are after, then a normal gamer would eventually become a celebrity from the exposure would they not?  Two birds.  One stone.  You have a face and a name that’s selling your product who actually knows and plays games.  Elementary, right Watson?  A lot of these publishers talk about how making a good game is the most important thing but I’d argue against that with the methods used to pitch these games to people.

She's hot but a gamer she's not

I could go down a long list of celebrities who participate in the development of certain games by voice acting or face mapping sessions who don’t even bother picking up the games they do the work for.  If not for getting the games for free, you’d be hard pressed to find any who would actually bother to even buy the games or even play them.  Do you seriously think that Michael Rosenbaum (yep he’s still my fave) would bother walking into a store to purchase Dark Sector?  I wonder if he’s even played the game beyond  his sessions with the developers.  It’s no wonder they all have generic Gamertags that go unused.

Is it really too much to ask from these companies to incorporate a little bit of responsibility with whom they pay to sell these games?  Turn gamers into celebrities if you have to because I’m on gag standby preparing to see yet other celebrity interview about a game or an award show about video games that have no gamers in the crowd.  I’m looking at you Spike TV.  Yes, the boobies are good on the eyes but how do you have a video game award show yet the entire audience is made up of celebrities and people whose only response it seems is “Oh yeah, been playing since Mario.”

I’m so sure that Tila Tequila is worrying about how she’ll snag a copy of Gears of War 2.  Does Vida Guerra even know about the new Xbox experience?  I love Kristen Bell but let’s be serious about the odds of her having finished or played Assassin’s Creed.  You think Don King is worried about how poorly Prizefighter plays?  But these award shows and companies aren’t concerned at all about gamers it seems.  Not anymore.

Part 2 is coming as I dig deeper into the disease that is spreading within the gaming sector.

So, who you gonna call?  Could it be no one?  Reports running around the interweb suggest that Activision has decided to either can or severely delay the release of the Ghostbusters game.  You might ask yourself what Activision has to do with a game that Sierra Entertainment was behind but I’ll have to remind you of the merger between Activision and Vivendi forming Activision Blizzard.  Sierra Entertainment was within the Vivendi umbrella. (ella, ella, ella)

Whenever there is a merger, things like reorganization and refocusing always happen.  It’s inevitable to make changes that often includes layoffs, shuffling development houses etc.  I hope this isn’t true because I was ready to bust some ghosts.

It’s getting hot in here so take off all of your clothes.  Okay, not really but it’s definitely heating up for the Xbox Live Arcade this Summer beginning with this week’s release of Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2.  The Summer of Arcade kicks off with a blast this week!

July 30 - Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 (800 Microsoft Points)
August 6 - Braid
August 13 - Bionic Commando: Rearmed
August 20 - Galaga Legions
August 27 - Castle Crashers

And that’s not the only thing that’s on fire.  You can win a butt load of Microsoft Points each release week.  Check out the rules and how to register in the Summer of Arcade Play & Win here and you could win up to 100,000 Microsoft Points.  The best part about this is that playing either the free trial version or full version gets you registered!

That’s right.  The sweepstakes is open to anyone who downloads and plays the game whether that be the trial or full version.  And it’s even open to our friends in Canada, France, Germany and the UK.

Are you down with the Kingz?  If not and you’re looking to be, CJ Peters, CEO of Konsole Kingz, is giving everyone yet another piece of his urban empire by bringing the Konsole Kingz to a “skinz” near you. 

I think I’m going to give my vote for Candace “Black” Cabrera in her ninja attire.  I loved watching certain parts of her on the Flavor of Love show.  I’m sure having her grace my controller and console would give me some extra motivation while playing Ninja Gaiden II.  A sexy female ninja in my hands while kicking ass with Ryu equals heaven.

There are three designs that you can check out here.  Let me know which one you think the Kingz should run with.  I know CJ Peters pretty well so you can expect your feedback to weigh heavily on what he brings to the Konsole Kingz line of console skins.  I’ll make sure he stops by to check on what you all have to say.

What say you?

A couple of months ago I posted a story about a young boy and his family who had been victim to a senseless robbery.  During that robbery of course, the young boy lost his Xbox 360 console.  That wouldn’t be a unique story except that he had only had his Xbox 360 for about 2 weeks.  This story was emailed to me and I decided to get in touch with the family to offer my help in some way.  After speaking with the mother, I posted the story and the U360 Care effort began.

The community donated $250 to replace the Xbox 360 that was stolen.  I planned on covering the last $100 or so but one of U360’s own did the unthinkable and donated an Xbox 360!  NuAngel was fortunate enough to have an extra Xbox 360 and he approached me with the idea of simply paying it forward to this situation so that the money collected could go towards games, controllers etc.  This wasn’t an ordinary Xbox 360 though.  It was NuAngel’s Xbox 360 he had won that included the signatures from the entire Heroes cast!  (yep I was totally jealous)

I got in touch with the mother and let her know I’d be bringing an Xbox 360 for her son.  She was amazed at the generosity and simply floored that people she didn’t even know would go out of their way like this.  I delivered the console last Tuesday afternoon along with an extra wireless controller, SKATE, NCAA Football 2009, Ninja Gaiden II and a Quick Charge kit.  The smile on the kid’s face would’ve made the Joker proud.  I took a snapshot of him holding the Xbox 360 with a big thumbs up to the community.

Kudos to NuAngel and the entire Unscripted 360 community for a job well done!  It keeps my faith in the good of people in this society.  Just when you think there can’t be anyone who genuinely cares in the world, you all step up and prove people wrong.